Quotes

ABOUT THE TRUTH

• The principal of science (the facts), whether it be in history or elsewhere, is not what has been believed but what is true.
•  “The time has come when most preachers inoculate the people with religion so that they won’t suffer when they sin” (Mordecai Ham).

• Many people want the fruit of Christianity but not the root of Christianity. The sinner wants the benefits of Christianity – the blessings of God, provision, peace, liberty, freedom, happiness. joy etc but they do not want Christ.

• It is better to be divided by truth than united in error. It is better the speak the truth that hurts, then heals, rather than falsehood that comforts and the kills. It is better to be hated for telling the truth than to be loved for telling a lie. It is absolutely impossible to find anyone in the Bible who was a power for God who did not have enemies and was not hated. Jesus Himself said “they hated me without a cause”. It is better to stand alone with truth than to temporarily succeed with a lie.

• Heresy is leprosy of the head.

• “the problem is what we think we know that simply is not true” (Will Rogers)

• “Custom’s the world’s great idol we adore. And knowing this, we seek to know no more..”(Pomfret)

• “As all the Word of God is given by the Spirit of God, so each word must be interpreted to us by the same Spirit” (Andrew Murray).

• “It is not controversy we have to dread as much as the spirit of controversy. The worse thing we can bring to a religious controversy is anger because it is only one letter from danger.” (George Southwick) – Verily I have found this to be the case. Where there is anger, the emotions are in control and you cannot present Scriptural truth in anyway that will be accepted (Karl Tester)

• “Truth is unwelcome however divine” (William Cowper)

• It is not the love of God if we fail to declare the whole counsel of God

• When it comes to the Bible Interpretation, Interpretation, Interpretation is important, this is why I quote the following:

• Wonderful things in the Bible I see, placed there on purpose by you and by me.

• “The man after God’s own heart must be dead to the opinion of his friends as well as his enemies” (A.W Tozer)

• “If you are going to walk with Jesus Christ, you are going to be opposed…. In our days, to be a true Christian is really to become a scandal.” (George Whitfield)

• “No greater mischief can happen to a Christian people than to have God’s Word taken from them or falsified, so that they no longer have it pure and clear. God grant that we and our descendants be not witnesses of such a calamity. Let us not lose the Bible, but with diligence, in fear and invocation of God, read and preach it.” (Martin Luther) Unfortunately we are witnessing such a calamity in our lifetime.

• Proverbs 23:23 Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. Pay the price required, buy it with obedience, buy with study, buy with self denial, buy with self-sacrifice, buy with fidelity and know that still whatever you pay the truth you buy is the unpurchasable gift of God through Jesus Christ. This is the paradox of grace, you must lay down eveything, you must pay everything and then you have your prize for nothing and lo the prize you have found is far more glorious than the prize you sought. You sought truth and you have found Christ in a greater way than ever before. To find the Lord Jesus Christ, to agree with God is His chief thought.

• “To what greater inspiration and counsel can we turn than to the imperishable truth to be found in this treasure house, the Bible?” (Queen Elizabeth II)

• Psalm 100:5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

• “There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. This principle is contempt prior to investigation.” (William Paley)

• “If knowledge is no substitute for love, love is no substitute for ignorance” (Pastor Charles Jennings) – Proverbs 1:22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

• What are the three hardest words for a minister to say?  “I was wrong.”

•  A wide distinction exists and should be recognized between students and expositors of the Word and works of God who humbly, soberly and reverently search into the facts of nature and Scripture, of providence and prophecy, reach conclusions which sanctified common sense can approve, and speculators, who running away with isolated and mysterious expressions, indulge in imaginations of their own and become prophets, instead of students of divine prophecy.” (H. Grattan Guinness, The Approaching End of the Age)

• It is a sign of intelligence to ask questions.

• “If some of you only knew what most ministers think of your learning capacity when it comes to the Bible.” (Robert Caringola)

• “Since then your sere Majesty and your Lordships seek a simple answer, I will give it in this manner, neither horned nor toothed. Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.” (Martin Luther)(Reply to the Diet of Worms, April 18, 1521)”

• 1 Thessalonians 5: 21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (If the average Christian is not capable of doing this, then it would not have been commanded.)

• “Peace if possible, but truth at any rate” (Martin Luther)

• “As long as its God’s word it can not be too radical”

• “Some think it matters not what a man believes. Excuse me: truth is always precious, and the least atom of truth is worth searching out.” Charles Spurgeon

• Just because everyone believes it does not make it true.
• If love is no substitute for knowledge, love is no substitute for ignorance.
• “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

• “God grant that my bowels may never sound with compassion on that ground where the vengeance of heaven burns with indignation!” (William Huntington)

• “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”

• “A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion”. (Francis Bacon)

• “To confess you were wrong yesterday, is only to acknowledge that you are a little wiser to-day; and instead of being a reflection on yourself, it is an honour to your judgment, and shows that you are improving in the knowledge of the truth. Do not be ashamed to learn, and to cast aside your old doctrines and views, but to take up that which you may more plainly see to be in the Word of God.” 

• “He who is unaware of his ignorance will only be misled by his knowledge.” Richard Whately

• “Feeble views of this great book of truth may nurture a sickly growth in godliness but strong views of the word of God bring a high godliness to us” (George Southwick)

• The Devil fights truth, not error. He vented His hatred against it when Christ proclaimed it (Luke 4: 28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 29 And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.)

• “You can not argue with a prophet, only disbelieve him.”

• The defects of the understanding like those of the face, grow worse as we grow old.

• Because we close our eyes to controversy, it does not remove that controversy. When there are two conflicting lines of thought, taught from the Word of God, one of them is wrong and the sincerity in which we hold our belief does not alter the fact of our wrongness. We would like to ignore these facts but proper safety lies in facing the facts. In can be that both are part wrong and part right.

• “The human mind is like an umbrella, it functions best when open” (Walter Gropius) – but not so open that your brains fall out!
• When you dethrone God you automatically enthrone man (Jennings)

• Is either going to be Revelation or Regurgitation.

• Equality is another word used to mean conformity.

• 96% of the KJV Bible is written in three syllables or less. Now people say that the KJV is too hard, too difficult with the “thee”s and the “thou”s, I want something modern and up to date they say. And so we have a plethora of bible translations.The reason why the KJV Bible was sent forth was that the people of Great Britain, Scotland, Ireland were not as educated as you and I and a lot of them had difficulty reading. That’s why the KJV is in three syllables or less. It’s very easy to read.

MARTYRDOM AT THE HAND OF THE PAPACY:

• “In [the martyr] we behold a spirit upheld, not by the motives of vanity, self-sufficiency, or indifference, but by the simple power of truth; we witness a soul so under the influence of good, that evil, even in its most cruel form, cannot dim its beauty, but serves as a contrast to heighten its luster. Here is self-sacrifice, springing not from pride, but from humility; founded not upon ignorant prejudice, but upon a faith based upon conviction; arising not from hatred or contempt for man, but from the love of God. Truly theirs was the victory that overcame the world, even their faith—a faith which, accepting the future as a true inheritance, enabled them to give up for Christ’s sake houses and lands, children and relationships, yea, and their own lives also, rather than be false to their conscience and their God. The history of Christian Martyrdom is, in fact, the history of Christianity itself; for it is in the arena, at the stake, and in the dungeon that the religion of Christ has won its most glorious triumphs.” Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (p. 5)

Stained Glass window depicting a heretic, in the Cathedral of Saint Rumbold in Mechelen, Belgium.

The words of William Lithgow

Before we let fall the curtain upon this awful subject, let us listen for a moment to some of the words of William Lithgow, a Scotsman, who suffered the tortures of the Inquisition in the time of James I. After telling of the diabolical treatment he received, which was very similar to that I have just described, he says, “Now mine eyes did begin to startle, my mouth to foam and froth, and my teeth to chatter like the dobbling of drumsticks. Oh, strange, inhuman, monster man-manglers!

And notwithstanding of my shivering lips in this fiery passion, my vehement groaning, and blood springing from my arms, my broken sinews, yea, and my depending weight on flesh-cutting cords, yet they struck me on the face with cudgels to abate and cease the thundering noise of my wrestling voice. At last, being released from these pinnacles of pain, I was handfast set on the floor with this their ceaseless imploration: ‘Confess, confess, confess in time, or thine inevitable torments ensue.’ Where, finding nothing from me but still innocent, Oh! I am innocent. O Jesus, the Lamb of God, have mercy on me, and strengthen me with patience to undergo this barbarous murder‘” Romanism and the Reformation  Lecture IV Grattan Guinness